‘Big Love’: Just two more left!

Alby has done a lot of scary stuff over the years. He planted snakes in Bill and Barb’s bed, attempted to blow up his parents, ordered all the dogs in Juniper Creek killed and, of course, there was last night’s end-of-episode business. (Did anybody else spend the last 15 minutes or so utterly convinced that he was actually going to off Nicki?) And yet, the scariest he’s ever been may have been last night after he dropped the gun without shooting Nicki: With a deeply frightening smile, he said, “”I don’t want to kill you, Nicki. You’re my sister. I love you.” Then he left the killin’ tent, no doubt to do something REALLY scary.

A lot of the episode dealt with Barb’s questioning by the authorities and what it might lead to. Bill was outwardly convinced that the state was basically just messing with them — they were trying to put the fear of the Mormon church into them to make them stop identifying themselves as Mormons and stop pressing to bring The Principle into the light of day. Barb — facing charges of procuring and being an accomplice to rape — had a hard time seeing it that way.

Meanwhile, Alby continued his campaign to destroy Bill. He offered to buy Don out, and Don pretty much said he planned to take him up on the offer (“I can’t take it any more; I have to sell.”) Since the assault, Don’s been falling apart — he’s taken to spending most of his time away from Home Plus in his bunker, and his wife is so concerned that she took him to see a psychiatrist. Don tried to convince Bill that he should just sell to Alby, too — “it’s not a betrayal if you sell out, too.”

Bill plans to do no such thing. He picked up Morgan, a Grant relation who once accused Alby of sexual assault when he was a kid, and headed over to the compound. He threatened to reveal Alby’s proclivities, going public with Morgan’s accusation among other things. (Roman paid off Morgan’s family to keep quiet.) Alby responded by telling him he planned to press kidnapping charges against Nicki, who had helped one of the compound wives flee her husband earlier that day. (The woman was reluctant to leave, and eventually asked for bus fare back to the compound, a request Barb urged Nicki to OK because the last thing they need is more drama.)

Alby is, of course, not a “let’s let bygones be bygones” kinda guy. And so, after Bill and Morgan left, he told Verlan (who seemed to be growing a skeezy-looking mustache) that he wanted him to kill Bill for being an inglorious basterd. (Sorry — couldn’t resist the Tarantino reference.) He offered $2,000 for the job, which even desperate-for-cash Verlan saw as a bad deal. He demanded $10,000 — $5,000 up front. Alby seemed to agree, then sent him off to dig Bill’s grave.

Meanwhile, Margene was called in for questioning. Lee, the lawyer, coached her in what to say — simply, “Yes,” “No” and “I don’t recall” — but Margene had a tough time with that, asking about all kinds of possible areas that her interrogator might pursue. All of the Henrickson grownups were in the meeting, and Nicki eventually demanded that she get her own lawyer. She’s still angry at what she sees as Lee’s role in making sure she didn’t take over the family finances when she became Bill’s legal wife — “I want an attorney who’s pro-me, not anti-me.”

Margene’s questioning was pretty intense. She was doing more or less OK — aside from recalling discussing Bill with her mom, and her mom noting that Priscilla Presley had been 15 when she took up with Elvis — until she was confronted with her birth certificate. (The investigator is played by the same actor who played the U.S. marshal who pursued Kate across the globe in “Lost,” which probably does not bode well for the Henricksons — he plays dogged determination very well.) Margene started to crumble a bit. She really got shaky, though, when the investigator asked if she had ever thought about why the Henricksons would want her in their family, and what her life would be like if they hadn’t snapped her up.

The conversation echoed later on when Michael Saint — whom Bill refused to help get a stadium built — called her in to suggest that her family is more of a cult that is isolating her and perhaps not acting in her best interests (“I believe this is a battle for your soul,” he told her.) Margene told Bill and Barb about the accusation, after they told her that Goji Blast seemed like a cult; Barb lost it and told Margene she had better figure it all out. Margene ultimately decided to leave Goji Blast (which is probably good news for Carl, who has been trying to get Pam to stop pouring hteir dwindling finances into the company/pyramid scheme, too.)

As if all that weren’t enough, the Cara Lynn storyline reached a boiling point. Margene followed Cara Lynn on a clandestine trek to the tutor’s house. Margene knocked on the door; Greg (the tutor) denied Cara Lynn was there; Margene pressed her way in, calling for the girl, who eventually had no choice but to come out. Margene — sounding like a very angry adult for a change — took Cara Lynn home, where they found Nicki waiting in Margene’s living room in the dark, annoyed with Margene for spiriting Cara Lynn away when she had studying to do. Cara Lynn lied the whole thing away — Margene seemed stunned by the ease of the lies that fell from her mouth. She didn’t immediately tell Nicki about the situation until after her interrogation; when she did reveal the secret relationship, Nicki dragged Cara Lynn off to Greg’s apartment to make her break it off face to face. Cara Lynn dug in her heels — she IS Nicki’s daughter — and said she planned to ask for permission to marry Greg when she turned 16. The whole thing ended with a physical altercation. Nicki also threatened Greg with prosecution. (The more under-age sex scandals scattered around the family, the merrier!)

As tensions mounted — Bill even went to (the underused) Sen. Barn and asked him to tell the church that, if they left the family alone, he would resign — Barb told Nicki she needed to use her relationship with Alby to get him off their backs.

Nicki — once again, getting onto the compound awfully easily — went out there to do just that. She ran into Verlan on the way in, and he told her of Alby’s plan to have Bill killed, which, he said, he didn’t plan to do. Nicki shook him off and headed inside, confronting Alby about what Verlan had told her; he called her a whore, and she slapped him. Somehow, Alby was able to overpower her, taping her mouth shut and stashing her behind a hidden panel in the office. Then, after shaking lose of Adalene, who knew something was going on, he and Verlan hauled Nicki’s kicking form out of the office to take her to the grave that had been intended for Bill. It was quite a set up: A tent was put up over the grave to keep prying eyes from seeing what was going on, and lend the whole thing an even creepier vibe. (It allowed for some decent lighting, too.) Alby pulled a gun on Nicki, pointing it at the back of her head; Nicki pleaded with him, sharing a story from their childhood. It was a tense scene — I was already wondering whether Alby would call Bill about Nicki’s death or would just let him wonder what had happened. Then Alby suddenly fired at Verlan, who dropped to his knees. Alby fired a few more times, finishing him off, before telling Nicki he loved her and leaving the tent.

While all that was going on, Bill revealed to Margene and Barb that the D.A. did plan to press charges against him, for statutory rape and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, among other things. They were quietly discussing what the next step would be — how Barb would need to come bail him out — when Nicki, dressed in the prairie dress Alby had put her in, returned home.

So — there are only two more episodes left. What else could go horribly wrong for the Henricksons, do you think? And, once again, there was no reference to Joey — don’t you think Bill would reach out to him to let him have a little time with Lois while she’s still lucid enough to recognize him? There have been more references to the Greens this season than to Joey. Do you suppose Bill will flee — bring the family down to Mexico and start a new compoud with Joey and Wanda? Post your comments on the show below and let’s discuss the episode.